20 baseball hitting drills, accompanied by 20 streaming videos - one to describe and demonstrate each drill in the book. Illustrated with full color diagrams, and includes bonus material. Written by professional baseball player
From age-appropriate drills to motivation strategies, this step-by-step guide to youth baseball offers all the information parents and coaches need to help young players reach their full potential.
Paul Petricca draws on his experience as a coach, player, blogger, and student of baseball and softball to share what hes learned about hitting in this essential guide for players seeking dramatic results at the plate. The author presents easy to understand hitting mechanics highlighting how the engineering concept of torque can be applied to hitting and is often the difference between a weak groundball or a long home run. Topics covered include understanding where hitting power really comes from and the importance of increasing bat speed through the fundamentals of a repeatable and powerful rotational swing. Hitters of all ages who adopt his eight hitting keys will enjoy a dramatic increase in bat speed and power almost immediately. Hitting with Torque is more than a set of hitting mechanics---its a mindset. Readers will be challenged to look past the worn-out hitting theories and myths that have been holding back hitters from reaching their full potential. With an open mind and practice, all hitters can unlock the power and consistency that is Hitting with Torque.
"My son at 10yo (90-lbs) is highly coach-able. I taught him the system in February and he hit well during the season but could only hit the ball around 180'. Then all of a sudden around June he started killing the ball. He was hitting home runs every game and hit a ball at least 250-feet" - Michael Parillo (via email) Sick of struggling to help hitters drive the ball hard with more consistency? Dramatically increase power without sacrificing swing quality. Literally thousands of coaches across the nation are getting predictably positive results with hitters using the CLS system. How? By applying human movement principles validated by REAL science to hitting a ball, and NOT "bro-science." THIS STEP-BY-STEP GUIDE TO CONSISTENT POWER TEACHES: How to master a handful of human movement principles, so you can slice the "teach hitting" learning curve in half. How to effectively load the body, so your hitters can optimize their batted ball distance potential. How elite-hitters are revealing ways to hit balls with High-Exit-Speeds, swing after swing, using three elements a 4-year-old can understand. Why 'loading and exploding the hips' is bad for lower back, and how to teach hitters a highly effective but SAFE swing. THE NEW EXPANDED EDITION INCLUDES: 'How to practice' section at end of each movement principle Chapter. How to train a 2-year-old to hit a moving ball (proof that NOT only elite hitters can be taught these movements). Why pitchers are taught to pitch around ineffective swing paths, and how to turn their weapon against them. Why coaches MUST focus their hitters' efforts on targeting and elevating pitches low in the zone. How to teach timing and get hitters on-time more often in games.
CATCHING-101: The Complete Guide for Baseball Catchers is the most comprehensive book ever written for baseball catchers. It contains tips, drills, and proper mechanics that will help every catcher or coach better understand the most difficult position on the field. This book contains information on EVERY aspect of catching that Coach Barksdale has learned through his years of experience from coaching nationally ranked NCAA teams, and playing at almost every level from Little League to professional baseball. A few of the topics covered in CATCHING-101 are: Receiving Blocking Catching Pop Flies Throwing Fielding Bunts Plays at Home Plate Drills Pitchouts Pass Balls/Wild Pitches Giving Signals And More! If you have been searching for a source with lots of high quality information about catching, this is the book for you! CATCHING-101 was written by Coach Xan Barksdale who is currently an NCAA Division I baseball coach and an ex-professional baseball player. Coach Barksdale played in the Atlanta Braves organization and has been a featured speaker at the prestigious ABCA (American Baseball Coaches Association) national convention.
"Youth Baseball Drills" features helpful tips to make on-field practice more fun and can be employed to develop players' understanding, skills, and love for the sport.
T-Ball Skills & Drills presents 37 creative drills that T-Ball coaches and parents can do with their team or with their own kids at home. Over a million kids participate in T-Ball every year. Hitting fundamentals, throwing, baserunning, and fielding are just some of the skills covered. Coaches need to be creative to keep kids stimulated in practices and during games. Many of the drills in T-Ball Skills & Drills use common household items as props. The drills give useful hints for skills like throwing and catching fly balls that will make it achievable for 5, 6, and 7 year old kids. Other important T-Ball issues are emphasized such as safety. This book is appropriate for all T-Ball coaches and parents. Children as young as four up to seven years old will learn useful skills should they continue playing baseball or softball.
St. Louis Cardinals manager Mike Matheny's New York Times bestselling manifesto about what parents, coaches, and athletes get wrong about sports; what we can do better; and how sports can teach eight keys to success in sports and life. Mike Matheny was just forty-one, without professional managerial experience and looking for a next step after a successful career as a Major League catcher, when he succeeded the legendary Tony La Russa as manager of the St. Louis Cardinals in 2012. While Matheny has enjoyed immediate success, leading the Cards to the postseason four times in his first four years−a Major League record−people have noticed something else about his life, something not measured in day-to-day results. Instead, it’s based on a frankly worded letter he wrote to the parents of a Little League team he coached, a cry for change that became an Internet sensation and eventually a “manifesto.” The tough-love philosophy Matheny expressed in the letter contained his throwback beliefs that authority should be respected, discipline and hard work rewarded, spiritual faith cultivated, family made a priority, and humility considered a virtue. In The Matheny Manifesto, he builds on his original letter by first diagnosing the problem at the heart of youth sports−it starts with parents and coaches−and then by offering a hopeful path forward. Along the way, he uses stories from his small-town childhood as well as his career as a player, coach, and manager to explore eight keys to success: leadership, confidence, teamwork, faith, class, character, toughness, and humility. From “The Coach Is Always Right, Even When He’s Wrong” to “Let Your Catcher Call the Game,” Matheny’s old-school advice might not always be popular or politically correct, but it works. His entertaining and deeply inspirational book will not only resonate with parents, coaches, and athletes, it will also be a powerful reminder, from one of the most successful new managers in the game, of what sports can teach us all about winning on the field and in life.